Author: Akin Naphtal

Mesh Payments, the finance automation platform for companies, has raised $60 million in a Series C funding round led by Alpha Wave. Tiger Global, TLV Partners, Entreé Capital, and Meron Capital joined the round, which brings Mesh’s total funding to $123 million. Mesh promises to make legacy corporate cards obsolete with its insight-driven automation platform that gives finance managers more granular control over their spend. The platform helps finance teams automate, control, and optimise their corporate spend — from travel and expense to SaaS subscriptions, and offers the industry’s only numberless Visa physical card that syncs with virtual cards. Mesh…

Liberia’s National Elections Commission (NEC) said it will deploy a biometric-based voter identification system for use during the country’s 2023 Presidential and General Elections. Stakeholders, including the African Youth Peer Review Committee (AYPRC), have lobbied the regulator to introduce the system to help prevent any form of manipulation of results. NEC chairperson Davidetta Browne Lansanah said the electoral commission wants to avoid any post-election conflict over data and registration, as has happened in the past. Lansanah said the biometric system would secure voters’ roll and the integrity of the election process, including voter registration, voter verification and the transmission of…

Nigeria’s government has suspended plans to impose a 5% excise duty on telecommunications services. According to officials while the excise duty is covered by the Finance Act 2020, authorities decided to suspend it following engagement with stakeholders. However, the government has since established a committee – chaired by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Ali Pantami – to immediately review the policy. Pantami, who is also chairman of the Presidential Council on Digital Economy and e-Governance, said he opposed the excise duty because it is a threat to the digital economy, with the telecommunications industry already over-taxed. There…

Nigerian fintech startup, NowNow Digital Systems, has closed a $13 million seed round to launch new products Nigerian fintech startup, NowNow Digital Systems, has closed a $13 million seed round to scale and expand its service offerings across Africa. NeoVision Ventures led the round. Several other VCs and angels, including DLF Family Office and Shadi Abdulhadi, participated. It plans to use the funds to expand its platform, team, and marketing. It also intends to launch new products to complement its existing consumer banking, agency banking, and merchant payment solutions. Sahir Berry, CEO, and his co-founder, Mahesh Nair, initially founded the…

The City of Markham is working with IBM Canada to launch the Elections Markham Virtual Assistant, powered by IBM Watson Assistant, just in time for the 2022 Markham Municipal Election. The AI virtual assistant is designed to simplify the voting process, making it easier for voters to get information about the upcoming municipal election. The virtual assistant offers 24-hour support for voters looking for credible, timely election information, and has the ability to answer questions at any time or place. For example, if voters are wondering how to vote online, need help registering to vote, or want to find out…

In a move to further reduce cash transactions, stimulate innovation and drive the growth of digital payments in Nigeria, ProvidusBank together with Mastercard, Interswitch and Thales Group has launched a Tap-to-Pay service. The service allows cardholders to make fast, secure, and convenient in-store payments by tapping their NFC enabled smart device at any contactless-enabled payment terminal. The solution works by enabling a connected device such as a smartphone or wearable device to act as a safe and secure payment method in the same way as a physical card. Leveraging Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Service (MDES), and Interswitch’s tokenization capability, ProvidusBank customers…

PalmPay, a fintech innovator aiming to make digital payment more accessible and flexible has announced the launch of “PalmPay Anniversary Gold Rush”, a 35-day campaign offering all the users who participate in the in-app Gold Rush game the opportunity to share a massive N300 million cash giveaway. The celebration also marks PalmPay reaching the milestone of 10 million users in Nigeria as of July 2022. The anniversary campaign will run from Monday, September 5th, to Monday, October 10th, and will give substantial cash rewards and coupons in the app as a way of saying thanks to PalmPay’s users. The PalmPay…

By Margaret Soi, Head of Cross Border Banking, AfCFTA The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) was signed on 21st March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda, by 44 out of the 55 African countries, and brokered by the African Union (AU). This agreement was born of the realisation that total trade exports from Africa to the rest of the world are estimated at USD 760 billion; however, this is mostly in the form of raw materials and thus prevents Africa from deriving the true value of such exports. Considering that African exports to the world make up only 3% of the…

Liquid Networks, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, today announced the launch of its Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Secure offering to its customers. The solution is designed to proactively mitigate attacks by scrubbing traffic and blocking known attackers or malicious traffic. “Cyber Attacks are at an all-time high; cyber security threats cost the African GDP almost a whopping US$4.1 billion in 2021. And, DDoS are on top of the cyber security attacks; the staggering cost to our GDP is proof enough that no business can afford to be without a layer of protection against them. While…

As a market-leading developer and vendor of digital twins for the energy sector, KDI is now adding digital twin for maritime to its portfolio. Digital twins allow new ways of working and interacting with data and operational insights. The first areas the maritime twin supports are trim advisory, 3D visualization of the vessel, and situational awareness around it, including weather conditions. The twin is powered by real-time data from the Vessel Insight data infrastructure and its eco-system of applications. “The maritime industry is facing huge challenges to meet the new standards for increased transparency and reduced carbon footprint. As a…